Benjamin Carmine
Private Benjamin Carmine (COG tags CSID 83B186-22AO3-SF), or Rook by his squad mates and Squirt by his brothers, was the brother of Anthony Carmine, Clayton Carmine, and an unidentified Carmine. He served as a Gear soldier in the Coalition of Ordered Governments army and joined Delta Squad, which had previously been Anthony's squad, after completing his training, and was further trained by Sgt. Marcus Fenix and Cpl. Dominic Santiago. He fought in the opening stages of Operation: Hollow Storm, until his tragic death inside the Riftworm. Biography Early Life Benjamin Carmine was one of the four Carmine brothers, born after Clayton, Anthony, and a fourth brother. As a child he had a love for fire.Josh Q&A Email The Carmine family had strong ties to the Coalition of Ordered Governments Army, and was expected of all Carmines to join the army. Benjamin was only a child when the Pendulum Wars ended, but soon after, the Locust War began six weeks later on what was later known as Emergence Day. As the war continued during his childhood, more members of the Carmine family joined the war effort, with many of them dying in combat. Eventually, all three of Benjamin's older brothers joined the army. Locust War Lightmass Offensive In Gale 14 A.E., Anthony was killed during the Lightmass Offensive, where he was killed by a Sniper trying to fix his Lancer during the Mission to House of Sovereigns. Despite his loss, the mission was a success and the Lightmass Bomb was delivered to the Outer Holloe, killing millions of Locust. The Carmine family regarded him as a hero for his role in the Offensive. Basic Training Later that year, Benjamin Carmine turned eighteen and was conscripted into the Coalition army. During basic training, Benjamin payed close attention and tried to memorize all combat maneuvers. During which, he and others cadets spent time discussing the possible origins of the Locust Horde. Benjamin Carmine believed that the Locust were simply native to Sera and had been living underground forever. However, he also considered his comrade's theory that the Locust were aliens from Risea or one of Sera's moons to feed on Imulsion. In the fall of 14 A.E., Benjamin Carmine graduated from basic training. Siege of Jacinto Training Under Delta After Ben finished training at the academy, he was assigned to Delta Squad before Operation: Hollow Storm as Sgt. Marcus Fenix's new trainee. He flew on a King Raven along with several other Gears to Jacinto Med, and was dropped off outside the hospital. As he reported to Marcus outside of Jacinto Med, he dropped his gun on his foot, and Lt. Anya Stroud commented that he was "green as grass". Marcus and Cpl. Dominic Santiago decided to take Ben training, leading him to an alley behind the hospital, where they taught him how to use the Tac-Com, the Golden Rule of the Gears, how to reload and aim, and how to toss a Bolo Grenade correctly. As they trained, Dom offered his sympathy to Ben about his brother Anthony, whom Dom had served with when he was killed. Ben thanked him, and told him he was just glad that his brother had died a hero. They spotted several Wretches during the patrol, which Ben called the "monkey-dogs". Marcus threw a grenade in the garage to kill any potential Wretches; Ben soon followed, claiming that he had seen the monkey-dogs again. However, Ben did not throw his grenade high enough, and it bounced back, nearly killing the three of them. Marcus was irritated by Ben's incompetence, and threatened to give him a "unexpected" lesson in chainsaw training if he tried something like that again.After they scouted the building that the Wretches had been in and found nothing, they returned to the hospital to complete their patrol. They spotted several Ravens overhead heading somewhere very quickly, and Marcus ordered Ben to stay at the drop off point until called on his radio while they checked out what was going on. Raid On Jacinto Med Shortly after Marcus and Dom left, Jacinto Med was attacked by Locust and another squad of Gears rounded up Ben to help them fight to protect the hospital. During the battle, he had trouble reloading, and took cover inside the building's entrance to get his gun working correctly. He was found there by Marcus, Dom and Cpl. Tai Kaliso. He explained the situation to Marcus, while Marcus fixed Ben's gun, then they all headed outside, assisting the other Gears in fighting off the Locust that were attacking the hospital, forcing the Locust back from the entrance and down the street, where the Locust retreated once air support arrived. After the battle, Marcus told Ben that he did a good job. He was happy about being congratulated by Marcus, and tried, unsuccessfully, to get a high-five from Tai. Anya then came over the communication screen of JACK and informed Dom that her lead on his wife had gone cold. Dom lost control, smashing a car with his Lancer, and he asked the rest of Delta Squad to leave him by himself for the time being to collect himself. Ben followed Marcus and Tai away to give Dom the time he needed.Gears of War 2: Act 1: Tip of the Spear: Desperation for Operation: Hollow Storm.]] Operation: Hollow Storm Battle of Stromson Forest Soon after the attack on Jacinto Med, the COG began Operation: Hollow Storm. Ben went with Marcus and Dom aboard a King Raven to the COG Staging Grounds, asking them on the flight why they were heading to Landown for the assault, and why they couldn't dig through the ground in Jacinto. Marcus explained to him that the ground was the one place the Locust couldn't dig through, and that Landown was the perfect spot to hit them on their own turf. Once they arrived at the staging grounds, they were assigned to the Assault Derrick "Betty", driven by Pvt. Dizzy Wallin. They defended the rig from multiple attacks from Nemacyst, Brumaks, and Locust foot soldiers on the long road to Landown.Gears of War 2: Act 1: Tip of the Spear: Rolling Thunder/The Big Push Assault on Landown After they arrived at Landown, Ben and the rest of Delta, joined by Tai, whose Rig had been destroyed by Tickers, escorted Dizzy and Betty through the city streets. Ben saw several Tickers crawling through the street, and asked what they were, and Tai informed him that the Locust used them as landmines. After taking out a Locust base at a gas station, Delta reached a long dark tunnel. Ben wondered why they were not given flashlights for situations like this, and Tai told him "might versus light". Ben asked him what that meant, and Tai told him that he preferred having an extra gun over a flashlight any day. After escorting Betty through the tunnel and killing the Tickers infesting it, the rig was pinned by mortar fire at the exit. Ben went with Marcus to secure one side of a street while Dom and Tai took the other, taking out the Locust mortar positions and a Brumak.Gears of War 2: Act 1: Tip of the Spear: Roadblocks They arrived at the drill zone, a cemetery honoring those who fought in the Pendulum Wars, without further incident. Ben and the others defended the Rig while Dizzy prepared their Grindlifts for dispatch, but just when they were about to dig into the Hollow, Skorge attacked. Ben, Marcus, and Dom were already secured in their lifts, but Tai jumped out of his and Ben's lift to help Dizzy hold off Skorge. The pods then revved up, with Ben, Marcus, and Dom unable to unlock their lifts to help Dizzy and Tai, and the three Gears descended into the Hollow, leaving them behind.Gears of War 2: Act 1: Tip of the Spear: Digging In Assault on the Inner Hollow Upon landing, Ben discovered his pod had gone off-course. He linked up with Echo-Five, and managed to contact Marcus and Dom, who told him to stay put, and that they were coming to get him. However, Ben and Echo-Five were attacked by a large group of Locust, and all of Echo-Five was killed, leaving Ben to fend for himself and hold off the attacking Locust. Ben was saved when Marcus and Dom showed up and helped him kill the attacking Locust. They then defended JACK from more Locust as he worked on fixing a nearby Grindlift to make their escape. After successfully eradicating the Locust, they fired up the Grindlift to dig a tunnel through a wall. When Dom complained about all of the dust, Ben suggested he wear a helmet so he wouldn't have to breathe it in. Dom, annoyed, pointed out that he wouldn't be able to see snipers so well then, discreetly referring to how Ben's brother was killed during the Lightmass Offensive. Ben, unaware of what Dom was implying, did not catch on and Marcus told Dom to cool down before he said anything else. They then proceeded through the tunnel, and assisted Omega-One in fighting off a Locust attack.Gears of War 2: Act 2: Denizens: Scattered After leaving Omega, they continued through the Hollow, soon encountering a Rock Worm, and were informed by Anya that the creatures were immune to standard weapon-fire because of their rock-hard skin. Ben tested this out by firing on it a few times, and saw it didn't even pay any attention to him. Soon after, they destroyed a Locust staging area and a Locust Forward base. Shortly after assisting Alpha-Two,Gears of War 2: Act 2: Denizens: Indigenous Creatures Ben had a brief conversation with the others on where they thought the Locust came from, and offered different theories. He soon got some hints to his questions when they found a carved doorway, guarded by a Kantus monk several Drones and Tickers. After fighting through another Locust position, they came across a large cavern, where Skorge, mounted on his Hydra, appeared and began chanting. Skorge and his Hydra then flew off, followed by the gigantic Riftworm, the source of the mysterious seismic activity. Ben was visibly horrified by the sight of this gigantic worm, exclaiming "Holy shit!" numerous times while Marcus was informing Anya of what they just saw. Anya then informed Marcus that the city of Ilima had just been sunk right at their position.Gears of War 2: Act 2: Denizens: Disturbing Revelations Battle of the Ilima Sinkhole After fighting through the sunken city, and encountering some Stranded survivors, they were ambushed at the crash site of KR Five-Four and Charlie-Nine. When the Locust came close to overwhelming them, Pvt. Augustus Cole arrived and rescued them, and joined the squad. They then worked their way toward Cole's two remaining squadmates', Cpl. Damon Baird and Tanner, last known location.Gears of War 2: Act 2: Denizens: Sinking Feeling They found Tanner dead, and Baird trapped in a Locust holding pod. They released him and learned that the Locust were capturing and torturing their prisoners on Torture Barges. The five Gears then boarded a Torture Barge to free any COG prisoners. When they reached the holding center, they found Tai in a holding cell, badly tortured and wounded. They let him out, but he committed suicide with a Gnasher Shotgun that Marcus handed him, being unable to stand the torture that had been inflicted upon him. Benjamin stared in shock at Tai's body, and couldn't believe what the Locust had done to drive Tai to such a point. After collecting Tai's COG Tags, the five of them then fought their way to the extraction point on top of a decaying building deeper in the Ilima sinkhole. As Delta Squad waited for the King Raven, they were attacked by many Locust soldiers. When the chopper arrived, Ben covered Delta's retreat and was shot in the shoulder. He fell against the chopper and was pulled in by the rest of the squad. As Ben lay on the chopper's floor, he revealed that the bullet that hit him did not pierce his COG armor. As he cheered that they had made it, the helicopter was hit by flying rubble from the approaching Riftworm, and the King Raven began spinning out of control. Ben, unable to grab a hold of something, plummeted into the creature's mouth, screaming in terror. The Raven and the rest of Delta Squad was also pulled inside the monster's mouth and was now also trapped inside the beast. The rest of Delta then began searching for Ben and a way out.Gears of War 2: Act 2: Denizens: Captivity Death Ben survived his fall, but was attacked by Nemacytes, which overwhelmed him and knocked him to the ground. They began dragging him across acidic spikes on the stomach of the Riftworm and badly wounded him as he tried to fight them off. The rest of Delta arrived and chased off the parasites, but Ben's chest was burned to the bone by the corrosive acid. Before succumbing to his wounds, he spoke to Marcus, asking him to tell his brothers and his mom that he loved them, as well as something else, but Ben died from his horrific wounds, unable to finish his final words. Marcus collected his COG Tags, and a letter that he had written to his brother Clay, to deliver both to Carmine's family. Delta was forced to abandon Ben's body as a debris wall inside the Riftworm began to close in on them.Gears of War 2: Act 2: Denizens: Intestinal Fortitude Legacy When Sgt. Bernadette Mataki was rescued from the Sinking of Jacinto, Marcus gave her a head count of the casualties. Ben was among those he mentioned. Like his brother, Anthony, he would be viewed as a hero for his sacrifice for the COG.Gears of War: Jacinto's Remnant pg 26 Marcus also seemed affected by his death, as he had promised Ben that they would see the surface again while they were inside the Hollow just before entering Ilima City. Sometime after the Sinking of Jacinto Marcus gave the letter and COG tags he had picked up from Ben's body to his older brother Clayton. After reading the letter and learning about his younger brothers death, Clay decided to immortalize Ben, along with Anthony, in the form of a tattoo on his right arm.Gears of War 3 In 17 A.E., years later, Marcus had a nightmare about the Fall of Ephyra and his father's death. Ben and Anthony were both in his dream fighting alongside him and Dominic Santiago instead of Jayson Stratton and Tai Kaliso.Gears of War 3: Prologue During the Swarm War, Lt. Delmont Walker discovered Ben's helmet still intact outside the town hall of the Riftworm Village, an Outsider village built within the remains of the Riftworm that devoured Ben. Lt. Delmont Walker had heard from his training sergeant, Chief Sergeant Clayton Carmine, about how much he loved Ben and how Ben fought more in his first day than most soldiers did in a year. Cpl. Kait Diaz then placed Ben's helmet alongside Anthony's helmet at the Tomb of the Unknowns, where both names were inscribed to remember their sacrifice during the Locust War. Personality and Traits Benjamin (like his brother Anthony) was "green as grass", but was able to survive most of the first day of Operation: Hollow Storm, whereas his brother was killed only hours into the Lightmass Offensive. Like his brother, he held the veterans of Delta in high regard and believed it was an honor to serve in the same unit that his brother "heroically" died in. However, Benjamin is unique from Anthony, in that he is a polite and kind-hearted sort of soldier and will disregard the Golden Rule of the Gears if he sees a teammate down or in trouble. Thanks to frequent prompting from Marcus and Dom, those were the only reasons he would rush out of cover. Although Ben would be reckless when it came to wanting to save his fellow team mates and to show he to could be a hero like his brother. This is seen when Delta is about to be extracted from the rooftop in Ilima sinkhole instead of rushing to the Raven like the other Gears he stays and tries to give them covering fire even when prompted not to by Marcus and Cole which lead to him getting shot in the shoulder and eventually falling out of the Raven into the Riftworm since he wasn't strapped in. To the end of his life, Ben remained unaware of how Anthony Carmine really died. Ever since Benjamin was a kid he had a love of fire.Josh Q&A Email This was also later stated by Dominic Santiago after finding the Scorcher Flamethrower at the New Hope facility.Gears of War 2: Act 3: Gathering Storm: Dirty Little Secret Notable Quotes Behind the scenes .]] *Benjamin is voiced by Michael Gough, who also voiced Anthony and Clayton Carmine. *Ben can be heard yelling Oh no. Oh no! They're all dead, they're all dead Sarge! in the background of the Gears of War 2 Bare Your Teeth Trailer. *An artist error in Gears of War: The Quickening, Ben is accidentally wearing the same helmet as his brother instead of his.Gears of War: The Quickening *Underneath Ben Carmine's helmet is the head of Minh Young Kim, as we are not supposed to see his "real" face and Kim's character model is used as the default generic COG soldier body. *After Ben's death and when you find the Scorcher at the New Hope facility, Marcus and Dom talk about how Ben would have liked the weapon because of his love of fire, even though through out the whole game Ben never once mentions his love of fire. The reason for this is because some of his lines of dialogue got cut out of the Tutorial level. Originally after blowing up the garage with a frag grenade, Carmine was supposed to go on and on about playing with fire as a kid.Josh Q&A Email *There are two errors in Gears of War 2 where Ben is wearing an incorrect helmet variation. The first is in Act 1: Tip of the Spear: Rolling Thunder after you finish defending Dizzy's Rig, when Ben climbs the latter to get back on the Rig he is wearing the first variation helmet instead of his own.Gears of War 2: Act 1: Tip of the Spear: Rolling Thunder **The second is in Act 2: Denizens: Scattered during the cinematic where Delta spots locust reinforcements while trying to protect Jack as he fixes a Grindlift Ben is wearing the third variation of the helmet instead of his own.Gears of War 2: Act 2: Denizens: Scattered *In Gears of War 3 during Marcus' dream sequence, it is possible for the first and third helmet variation to generate on Ben's character model. Alternative Path Should the player chose not to train Ben at the beginning of Gears of War 2, the following will happen: Marcus, in light of the recent Locust attacks, realized that he did not have time to train Ben, and ordered him to stand guard outside of the hospital. Ben was confused, telling him there is nothing to guard, but Marcus told him that it sounded like a good first assignment to him. As they left, Ben remained there to guard the area as he was told. Merchandise *A Ben Carmine/"COG soldier" action figure for the NECA Gears of War series 3, was released in early 2009. The figure is considered to be a rather rare figure and comes with a Mk 2 Lancer Assault Rifle and a Longshot Sniper Rifle. Multiplayer *Benjamin Carmine is a playable character for the COG team in Gears of War 2. **Anthony and Benjamin Carmine both share some audio files for their voices in multiplayer for Gears of War 2. *In Gears of War 3, Benjamin Carmine is an unlockable multiplayer character, available after reaching Level 34. *In Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Benjamin Carmine is an unlockable multiplayer character, available after reaching Level 60. **In Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, whether you are looking at Ben Carmine's tac-com portrait or in Team Deathmatch when the respawns are depleted, Ben Carmine's helmet seems to be that of Anthony Carmine's. *In Gears of War 4, Benjamine Carmine is a playable multiplayer character, available in the Carmine Gear Pack. A Zombie skin can also be unlocked in the Zombie Carmines Gear Pack. Appearances *''Gears of War: Ultimate Edition'' *''Gears of War 2'' *''The Quickening'' *''Jacinto's Remnant'' *''Gears of War 3'' *''Gears of War 4'' *''Gears 5'' References Category:Characters Category:COG Category:Gear Soldier Category:Males